Improvement in rotary engines



n AnAMs Rotary-Engines. No. 158,664. Patemedlannmlm.

3 Sheets-Q Sheet 3.

. ing of. the plstons.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

V ORWIN ADAMS, OF BATTLE CREEK. MICHIGAN.

IMPRo'vEMENT |N RorARv ENGiNEs.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 158,664, dated January 12, 1875; applicatioi tiled June 11, '1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ORWIN ADAMS, of' Battle Greek, State of Michigan, have invented an Improved RotaryEn gine, of which the following is a specification:

The object of the invention is to arrange grooved cams on each side of the piston-drum., to guide the pistons in and out, and a double roller on each end of the pistons, to obviate rapid wear of those working parts. A second object of the invention is to provide rectangular pistons, such asare used in my engine, with a more perfect edge-packing than was heretofore used in any engine.

The accompanying drawings show the principal parts of a non-reversible rotary engine, the valve-gear being omitted, as that will be substantially the sameas that heretofore pat ented by me August 19, 1873, which patent is numbered 141,909.

In these drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal section in line a: fr of Fig. 2 of the cylinder, and a full view of the drum arranged with three pistons, the guiding-cams for the pistons being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section through the center of the engine. -Fig. 3 is a front View of the'rocking valve and a portionof each ot' the two cylinder-heads. Fig. 4 is a front View of the pieces constituting the edgepack- Fig. 5 is a front view of one of the pistons detached. Fig. 6 is an end View of the piston, the packing being removed. Fig. 7 is a. front View of the cam, which operates-the valve-gear' of a three-piston engine.

Fig. Sis a vertical longitudinal section of a four-piston enginc,in which the pistons are guidedin and out by grooved cams attached tothe heads of the cylinder, the shape of the said cams being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 9 is a vertical transverse section of the fourpiston engine represented in Fig. 8, Fig. 10 is a sectional view of the double' rollers and the pin on which they run, shown o'n a larger Scale than the other figures.

Letter A representsthe induction, and a a are the channels which lead the steam around the cylinder to the two steam-chests b b,which are located at opposite sides of the cylinder. b b are the steam-ports, by which the steam enters the interior ofthe cylinder. c c are exhaust-receivers, which communicate with the interior ot' the cylinder by the exhaust-ports c c. D is the revolving drum, which carries the pistons E. The drum is fastened upon a center shaft, F, which has its bearings in the heads of the cylinder. The pistons E slidein and ont in slits made in the periphery ot the drum, and are also guided in the arms of the spiders G, one on each side of the hub of the druin, the arms of these spiders bein g furnished with zradiating grooves, to receive and guide the legs ot' the pistons'. Each piston is provided with two rollers, c, and two projections, e. The rollers travel upon the outer surface of a guidingflange, H, and the projections upon the inner surfaces. The guiding flanges or cams H are attached to the inner sides of the cylinder-heads, and serve to guide the pistons in and out. Their shape is part of a circle from 1 to Zand from 3 to 4, (see Fig. 1,) and contracted or depressed toward the center from 1 to 4 and from 2 to 3'; and the interior ot' the cylinder is also a portion of a circle from 5 to 6 and from 7 to S, and both the cylinder as Well as the flanges are made concentric with the drum at those places. While the pistons travel upon the circular portions of the flange H, their edge-packing is in contact with the circular portions of the cylinder. In about the center, between the steam and exhaust ports, the interior surface of the cylinder is contracted toward the drum, and there is a metallic packing, g, which bearsagainst the drum D, and prevents communication between the steam and exhaust ports. The rocking valves close and open the steam-ports b b', being operated by the cam P, which -must be a three-folded cam for a three-piston engine, as shown in Fig. 7, and a four-folded cam for a four-piston engine.

The valve-gear is not shown in the draw-l ings, as the said gear may be substantially the same as that described and claimed in the aforesaid Letters Patent No. 141,909, except that it must be made suitable'to operate two Y valves instead of one.

y A moditied pla-not' the Vmeansiof guiding the pistons in and out is shown' in Figs. 8, 9, 10. It consists in making tliefcylinder-heads with a continuons groove'd cam,"o, (shown in dotted lilies in Fig. 8,) and furnish-ing the ends of the pistons with two rollers each, p and q, the rollers p traveling upon the inner surface,

"o1, of the groove-cam o without touching thel 4 outer surface, o, of `the said cam, and the rollsingle roller could not be iliade to fit the groovetightly; in traveling around the groove,

otherwise it would not revolve and, if made to have a play between the sides of the groove, the single roller is obliged to change its contact from -one side lot' the groove-cam to the other, a'nd also its direction .of revolvingmotion, (four times in going once around the cam,)

' which would expose the roller and the sides of the' cam each time to a blow, and, in the rapid motion of the engine, to considerable wear,

`while the two rollers p and q, as arranged by me, can be so fitted to the width of the groovecam as to keep one of them ('11) constantly in close contact with the inner surface, ol, and,

the other rolleriq) constantly -in contact with. the outer surface, o2, of the groove.

It will be readily seen that the rollers p and q, thus arranged and tted in between the sides of the groove,will never be obliged to reverse their motion, nor receive any blows.

.It is'evident that the samedevice may be applied with success to any grooved cam requiring a rapid motion' andexposed to wear.

The edge-packing of the pistons is of the,

following construction: The blade is made with a' groove, e2, running along its outer edge and down its end edges, as shown in Fig. 6, and the three packing-pieces n 'n' n' are fitted into these grooves, projecting slightly beyond the ed ges of the blade. 'n' n', being the' corner packing pieces, are tted beveling against the ends' of thecenter piece, a, and there are spiral springs m m let into the blade, which tend to hold these pieces n n' n out and in close contact with the cylinder and its heads. l

The object of fitting the end pieces, n' n', beveling or angular against the ends of the center piece, n, in the manner as shown in the p drawings, see Fig-4,) is to retain a`steamtight joint etween the three packing-pieces when the edges of these packing-pieces wear away, the ends ofthe center piece, n, keeping all the time'in closel contact with. the inner.

ends of theend pieces, fn.-

Among the advantages obtained by this rotary engine are the following:

First, the incoming piston cuts o.' all steamback of it; thus there is no steam Aexhausted back of the piston.

l Second, there arev ,no dead-points in the engine; two of the pistons are all the timetaking steam.

Third, in the-four-piston 'engine there is no one-sided pressure on the main journals of the shaft, caused by the steam-pressure on the drum, and-.in a threepiston engine .this one-V sided pressure is counterbalanced to a great extent.

Fourth, aperfect edgepacking is obtained for a vrectangular jpiston..

Fifth, there is nomaterial ,friction on anyv moving part of the engine caused'by the pressure ofthe steam. I y,

Sixth, the'valves are `opened at about one- 'lteenth of the ,stroke'of eachv piston. Thus the pistons m'ayhave boiler-pressure for almost the whole length'of their stroke, unless the engineis made to cut on'.

Seventh, the cut-ofi' can be arranged fromy one-'fifteenth totwothirds of the stroke, thus enabling'the engine to be governed by the c utoft. p A

Eighth, the .area of the ports being about one-quarter of that of the. pistons, the steam'y in the portsris not obliged to travel more than seventy-tive feet per second, while the piston speed may be one thousand feet per minute.

Ninth, on account of the great speed of the piston, 'thel loss of steam by radiation and leakage is proportionally small.

It is obvious that the herein-described plan is also applicable to the construction of rotary pumps, in which case the rocking valves should be dispensed with.

What I claim as my invention is 1'. The stationary cams olvand o2, the "surface of o1 projecting beyond the surface of o2, in combination with the rollers p and q, turning on the saine pin, substantially as specified. l

2. The metallic packing of a rectangular piston, consisting of the combinations ofthe packing-pieces n n n', the adjoining ends of each piece being beveled to form close contact, i and the springs m, substantallyas and for theV purpose specified.` j

ORWIN ADAMS.

Witnesses:

ALBERT H. HOOK, E. R. MORRISON. 

